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PS 3503 
.E25 N3 
1903 
Copy 1 






Class _It>S Si[£L3 
Book JK^.2^_)l_% 

Copyright N"_ ^ -.I3_a2) 

COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



Nature and Human Nature 



Nature and 
Human Nature 



By 
Author of "Touches of Nature' 



Cf)e iLakrssttie ^rtss 

R. R. DONNELLEY Si SONS COMPANY 
CHICAGO 



lid 3 



• ' COPY B, 1 i 



Copyright, 1Q03 

REV. J. C. BEEKMAN 

Chicago 



DEDICATED 

TO 

AUNT ELIZABETH AND HER NIECES 



Prelude 

The hours of the Sun 
Winning their way, 
By eve and morn, 
By night and day. 
The stars look down, 
The Earth looks up, 
God holding all 
In His divining cup. 



An Ancient Version 

'Twas in later May, 
Or early June day, 
And, with the returning Sun, 
The blue deep, 
From steep to steep. 
Shone in richest amethyst; 
For, with the breath of her rosy mouth, 
The glowing South 
Had wooed and won. 

In such an atmosphere. 
Rich, sweet, and clear. 
Wood-violets at our feet, 
Quails piping in the wheat, 
As children forgetting the graver part 
Of life and love, 

Under the chestnut oaks we rove 
For a long day's tryst, 
For a holiday 
Roaming the wood away; 
Whose blushing blooms 
Of deUcate perfumes, 
As fairie things, 



NATURE AND HUMAN NATURE 

Had taken wings, 

And filled earth's rooms. 

At our feet the gleam 
Of the source of a stream. 
To babble o'er shallows, 
Or broaden in bays 
Of dallying delays 
Of meadows and mallows; 
Or, in clearer deep, 
Mirror star and steep; 
Till rainbowed in cataract 
To dewy lawns, 

Brushed of hares and of fawns. 
And bespangled of hues 
May-sown 'mid her dews — 
Moss-loving arbutus, 
Tender wood-violets, 
Anemone rootlets, 
And, up to shelving height. 
Bluets and eyebright. 

Speed on, happy stream. 
As God's beauty dream 
Of fern-feathered dell, 
Cool as deep w^ell, 
Where springs exude 
Mid entangling thickets. 
That no feet intrude 



AN ANCIENT VERSION 



Save the cheerie crickets, 
And golden-thighed bees 
Enriching the hollow trees. 

Speed on, hidden stream, 
As man's fairie dream 
Of rain-shedding boughs, 
And nest-builder's house, 
Hidden riches of plum, 
Snowy blossoms of berry, 
Sweet-birch and wild cherry. 
Aromatic fir, 

Muffling pheasant's whir. 
And booming drum; 

"A populous soHtude of birds and bees" 
Amid the thickening trees. 
Resonant of saucy squirrels, 
Chattering over their burls, 
And on half-holidays, 
As part of Nature's own ways. 
Shouts of laughter-loving children 
On height, and through glen; 
With slow-moving feet. 
Sauntering recluse retreat. 
Artist's rare prize. 
Fisher-boy's Paradise. 

O rippUng stream, God bless thee. 
From spring to bay thou earnest 



NATURE AND HUMAN NATURE 

Large blessing, and echoes of eternity 

That girt the great oceans 'round, 

Ancient of singers thou mayest be, 

Crooning to new-born Earth 

Ere seed or scene had birth; 

Through night and day, 

Purhng thy limpid way 

From bank to bank, 

Where the dank 

Grass stoops low to listen, 

And deep-throated birds 

Raise higher still thy words, 

Where stars gleam, and suns ghsten. 

O joyous stream, and birds, 

Floating thy starry words, 

Still swing and sing, 

Beyond the minors of thy pebble-barred shal- 
lows, 

Beyond thy meadows and thy mallows. 
June, June! 

Thy longed-for face 

Presence supreme of summer grace, 

In welcoming haste of glad surprise, 

We hail! A Presence in these bowers, 

By witchery of beauty, to win 

A way to the heart within. 

In outward guise, 



AN ANCIENT VERSION 



Scarce can there yet arise 
More immortality of being, 
Surprise of flowers or leaves, 
Or through these aisles, 
Lights glancing play 
In greens of golden sheens; 
Enchantress of the hours! 
Ecstasy only God achieves! 

Just down a bit yonder 
What valley of wonder! 
Happy valley of Rasselas 
Compelling pause ; 
A sea of blooms 
To float a thousand glooms. 
Up and down the glen 
What delicate sheen, 
What glory floral 
Of azalea and laurel, 
While, by fall and shallow, 
In pebbly minor, 
Voiceful rill trickles. 
Merry of twinkles. 
And coquetry of dimples, 
Melodious song along, 
That robin and redbird, 
Alternately heard, 
With linnet and thrush prolong. 



NATURE AND HUMAN NATURE 

Hear the delicate laughter, 
Tones modeled after 
Angel- voiced word, 
Is it angel or bird ? 
While, livelong day, 
The merry, merry play 
Wakens each living bush 
To deeper heart gush. 

But now a new note swells the high 
chorus. 
As final token of divine caress. 
Note upon note rising and falling 
As wood zephyr enchanting the air. 
" Glory to God," 
Were the words of the song, 
"By day, by night. 
Glory to God forever, 
Halleluiah!" 

And over and over. 
In versatile, impromptu trills. 
Radiant, triumphant, 
'' Glory to God forever, 
Halleluiah!" 

And, where the grand old elms 
Tossed their whisp'ring fronds, 
The great bird chorus 
Responsively trilled the everlasting notes, 



AN ANCIENT VERSION 



And, at her feet, 

The glad brook broke into verse. 

O, child of the eternities, 
Wonderful was thy voice that day, 
Not as of Dryad flitting a classic wood, 
But of that crowning wonder of God's 

thought, 
A devout, heart-full woman; 
Exultant melodist, thyself the voice 
Of every bird and bloom 
For which our hearts make room. 

O Nature, often lowly, 
In silences of mists wrapped wholly. 
In thy great days breaking through 
Into wonderful ways, that woo 
The world from its strife, 
The heart back to Ufe, 
Both echo and prophecy thou art 
Of God and man's heart. 
Never but once before 
Did such glory pour 
On our vision. 
Whose impression bright, 
Rises to sight 
As from fields Elysian. 

At close of a summer day 
Pacing a steamer's deck, 



NATURE AND HUMAN NATURE 

That without check 

Lays its way 

Up a broad river, 

That naught seems to sever, 

But from heaven's high floor 

In ceaseless golden bounty pour; 

And, as in Arabian story, 

From far azure tops 

Fall linked diamond drops 

Down through the blue glory, 

From base to heights hoar 

Filling shore and shore. 

As, with treasure without measure. 

Glory-land to earth 

Gave earnest of new birth. 

Through this crystal shower 
Of Heavenly dower, 
Glowing as prism. 
Each drop divine chrism, 
We lay our way 
Toward setting day; 
While, crowning all, 
From wall to wall, 

Where shimmering trees close the vision, 
A bow spans the height, 
In intensest vivid Hght 
Of sacred mission. 



AN ANCIENT VERSION 



One mem'ry more — 
Of circling beach, 
Of headlands crowned, 
And seething seas, 
In yeasty foams, 
And tumults of rebound. 
In ceaseless currents leap. 
Far as the eye can reach, 
"Deep calling unto deep." 

To-morrow — minor melodies, 
Of sunny sands. 
Kissed of the singing seas. 
And little ships 
Sailing the shining shore, 
'Neath clouds high floating. 
And of sunset lit. 

Surely thus doth God show 
Eternal Godhead below, 
Himself manifest 
To greatest and least. 
The power and beneficence 
That alone are His. 

These the supreme hours 
Of that subtle essence 
That we call Nature, 
" When God's will sallies free, 
And dull idiot mav see" 



10 NATURE AND HUMAN NATURE 

Grace of the Father's feature. 
Open letters of His subscription, 
His verse written clear 
Over sky, land, and mere. 

Dare we then scandalize 
The high emprise, 

That, with all resources at command, 
As it spun and whirled from His hand, 
Divinely planned this world ? 

The world is God's glory, 
Its mountains hoary. 
Cloud swathe and blue peak, 
And the rifts where we seek 
Maiden-hair and blue-bells 
In deep-shaded dells. 
Mid browsing of sheep. 
And rippling of rills. 
Till peace the heart fills 
Deeper than sleep. 

And wide savannas of wood and wold 
Fairie-broider'd of the Lily and the Ros 

All these tell us ever, 
And over and over, 
As the bow in the cloud. 
That never and never. 
While sky shall earth cover, 
Is there more curse 



AN ANCIENT VERSION U 



For the bad or the worse, 

Low or loud, 

Of the ground, 

But, the wide world round, 

As God's grace is bound, 

Thou need'st not, who starvest, 

For seed-time and harvest. 

Heat and cold. 

Summer as winter's wold. 

Night and day 

Shall not delay. 

Scatter the golden grain, 
Hoar-frost and timely rain, 
Circling from main to main, 
For toil returns its gain; 
Broad fields of billowy wheat. 
And stalwart corn shall greet 
Glad eyes impatient hope 
With generous growth and scope. 

The Sun in his season 
Stoops to man's better reason, 
Of earth were abundance, 
And even redundance, 
Were man's heart as true 
As God's promise due; 
Were our vices suppressed, 
In God's brotherhood human 



12 NATURE AND HUMAN NATURE 

None need be distressed 
Of daily dread 
For needful bread. 
For love would illumine 
The paths of all true men, 
And the dark glooms of want 
Overbrooding squalid haunt. 

Lift up, then, weary one, 
To the soil and the Sun, 
Eyes of hope, eyes of faith 
To believe what God saith; 
Or, deeper inquire. 
Even down to Earth's fire, 
Of the treasures in store 
For the centuries more; 
Coal and oil 
In the turmoil, 
Veins of iron and of gold 
In the crust growing old; 
Multitudinous supply 
That our feet underlie; 
And wealth of the seas; 
While above in the breeze 
Innumerable birds. 
Swarms, flocks, and herds, 
Herbs, grasses, and roots, 
Grains and fruits; 



AN ANCIENT VERSION 13 

And happ'ly combined, 
To a soul well refined, 
Plain, mountain, and farm 
Bring exquisite charm. 
Born of designed harmony, 
The munificent effect 
Of the year's changes 
From January to June, 
And from June to January. 

And, in scenes more ethereal — 
The amber air 
The heavens declare. 
And the heavens. 
To farthest shine. 
His glory divine. 
The Father Universal, 
" Day speaking to day, 
"And night unto night," 
Love, knowledge, and might, 
Nor silence nor speech 
Where their voice does not reach 
Through blue of deep day. 
Saddened azure of twilight, 
Infinite spaces of midnight 
In which the stars play, 
" Distances incommensurable 
Bv numbers that have name," 



14 NATURE AND HUMAN NATURE 

And man, wondrous man! 
Crowning wonder of God's plan, 
Admirable of frame, 
Adapted to claim 
Sovereignty universal, 
Without fear of reversal; 
Upright and alert 
All attack to avert, 
From his crown to his feet 
Compact and complete, 
And a hand 

Whose wave is command, 
In its structure combined 
What in no creature we find. 
Its feature a thumb, 
Whose plane of motion, 
And elastic flexion 
Pertain to no dumb creation. 
Plastic and mobile, 
Subtile and prehensile. 
With its delicate touch 
For the little as much, 
And this ingenious appliance, 
A certain reliance 
For deftly working out 
The mind's intricate thought. 
For, when man has planned, 



AN ANCIENT VERSION 15 

His idealizations 

Were no realizations 

Without a servant so fitted, 

So almost witted, 

As the obedient hand; 

Comfort, need. 

Art, and heart 

Wait its daily deed; 

The sympathetic thrill 

Of chord and cymbal, 

And wondrous work of thimble; 

The thousand utilities, 

The prophetic possibilities 

Of compacted power of will 

Over inertial resistance. 

Overcoming time and distance. 

And uses spiritual — 
Soothing as balm. 
Throbbing brain with its calm, 
Or, with grasp and clasp 
That our hearts thrill. 
Binding in common will 
Sheaves of friendship and of love. 

But, of all hands, 
This hand that lies 
In sympathetic touch, 



16 NATURE AND HUMAN NATURE 

This dimpled hand, 

In this broad, brawny palm of mine. 

O childhood's charms! 

How dear the days 

Of all the enchanting years between 

The helplessness and eager teen. 

x\nd the eye, 
The soul's wings. 
Fleeter than sound's flight. 
Threading mazes immensurable 
On mystic rounds of light, 
" Speed almost spiritual" 
Through world and worlds so wide; 
Reflector minute and infinite 
Of works human and divine, 
Distance and dimension. 
Form, color, and space 
Made clear by vision, 
A grasp, tenacious as delicate, 
Of beauty and utility. 

And hue — 
Of heaven's own blue, 
" Or, veiled in shade 
Of mountains, or deep waters made." 

And expression — 
Tender as skies that color it, 



AN ANCIENT VERSION 17 

Deep as mountains and seas that shade it. 

The eye and the hand, 
With the mind to command, 
From slumbrous earth 
Bring a new nature to birth; 
Of vicious wild brute, 
And scraggy wild fruit. 
The high-stepping Hackney, 
And Juno-eyed Jersey, 
Apple, plum, pear, 
Peach, lucious and rare. 
Full-clustered vines 
BottHng their own wines 
In blushing blessings. 
Rich and sweet, 
To overflow gushing 
As lip and grape meet; 
Deep, healthful grasses, 
With toppling masses 
Of full-seeded heads, 
And swelling rival seeds 
Of bearded amber grain 
Pressing his groaning wain. 
And waking merry laughter 
To widest welkin rafter, 
Wherever toil and plan 
Lead out the humblest man. 



18 NATURE AND HUMAN NATURE 

And the fragrant lips of modest blooms, 
Making eloquent silent rooms, 
Brightening darkest glooms, 
Flushing light as inner desire, 
Earth's prismatic fire. 
To man's sympathetic touch. 
If some simpler grace losing, 
Responsive and diffusing 
Richer odor 
Through wider border; 
Hyacinth and crocus. 
Crimson tulip breaking up. 
Sweet pea and narcissus, 
Holy hly cup. 
Verbena and dahlia. 
And peerless calla, 
Jonquil and daffodil 
From meadow and hill. 
Jasmine and rose 
New favors disclose, 
Pink, primrose, and pansy, 
Mottled to fancy; 
Myriad blooms in their blush, 
From myrtle to bush. 
That sweeten the hall, 
Brighten border and wall; 
A new smiling earth 



AN ANCIENT VERSION K^ 



From horizon to hearth, 

So rare! so sweet! 

So ever and ever 

Recurring through the years, 

Breaking the crust 

Of the humblest dust 

Toward the open blue, 

Efflorescent romancers, 

Voiced of gay troubadours of song. 

Souls of fire. 

Heart's tumultuousness, 

Interpreters of petals, 

Rare and debonair, 

TriUing thy stories over to us 

Of clover blooms and arbutus, 

Ring out in words 

This lore of birds. 

We will not, cannot tell 
All the rare joys of birds and blooms, 
'Twas man, not birds that fell. 
We will not, cannot tell. 

We flit and fly 
'Tween earth and skies, 
And man's vain hope 
We tantalize. 



20 NATURE AND HUMAN NATURE 

You sinned, not we, 
And do not care 
Too close to share 
Of your fraternity. 

Boys steal our eggs, 

And then you say, 

"How pretty!" 

Can we be laying eggs alway? 

Your cats devour us, 
Think of that! 
How would you like 
Your bones crunched flat ? 

You kill us, 
And each other, too. 
Go say your prayers. 
And you be you. 

In lyric May 
Of poet blooms. 
And legend fay. 

Gay troubadours. 

We flit and fly 

'Tween earth and sky. ' ' 



AN ANCIENT VERSION 21 

At dewy breath 
Of rosy day, 
Near and away 

Through groves and dells, 

As matin bells 

Our love chimes ringing; 

Mingling with mirth 
Of morning's charm, 
Supreme of earth, 

A gayety 

Of reverent mood. 

And piety; 

Supreme for thee, 
Adventure rare 
And debonair. 

Rose gardens call 

For thee apart; 

Love claims thy heart. 

Go plead thy sorrow. 
Win grace to-day. 
Win June for May. 

O heavenly Throstle, heart of fire. 
With notes distilled of Rose's desire, 



22 NATURE AND HUMAN NATURE 

And clover blooms and arbutus, 

That tell thy storied loves to us, 

Despite thy large complaint, we pray 

Thou wilt not leave us, wearily, 

There may yet be a better day 

For birds and men ; 

The songs that woke in Paradise 

We cannot spare on anywise. 

Sing on and on forever. 

Till hearts are won, and passion's waves 

Beat gently on all shores they lave. 

And you, ye spiritual gems, 
Of lovehness entrancing, 
Of love-breath born, 
Bloom on and on, 
Teeming in wildernesses, 
Nestling at wayside homes. 
Supreme prophecies of thanksgiving, 
From roadside aster and goldenrod 
To queenliest blooms of coronet. 
Testimonials, all, 
Of fathomless love, 
Exhaustless tenderness. 

The glory of the utihtarian is one. 
But not to despise 
The delicate tracery, 
Thie harmonious color-music. 



AN ANCIENT VERSION 23 

Whose unobtrusive power, 
Subtile and impalpable, 
So soothes and softens, 
Charms and brightens, 
So still redeems the world 
To purer, surer hopes, 
Diviner melodies. 

Nor do we forget 
The play of expression, 
The mind's and heart's expression, 
The unconscious impression 
Of their inner Hfe, 
Their world's peace, or its strife, 
The soul glancing out. 
Playing o'er and about 
Each feature, as a lake. 
Just touched of a breeze, 
Little wavelets may make, 
Transmuting clay 
Into palpable spirit. 
Translucent of love. 

But, in this hurry of speech, 
We cannot reach 
All the power and grace 
Of the human form and face; 
Smile of ineffable charm, 
Luminous and warm, 



24 NATURE AND HUMAN NATURE 

The heart's captivity, 

WilHng captivity; 

Latent eloquence of mobile lip, 

Glowing cheek. 

Streaming hair. 

And divine stamp everywhere; 

Crowned by this arch on high. 

Symbol, or symboled of the sky, 

"The seat of man's unconquerable mind," 

Whence Moses and Jefferson legislate, 

Webster and Cicero debate. 

Homer and Shakespeare wing 

Immortal verse, 

That, thunderous of song. 

Or, sweet and low 

As "Drama of Exiles" flow. 

Ages prolong; 

Newton moves out to bring 

Starry worlds to be weighed by man, 

Paul and John 

Heard, wrote, and wrought 

Transcendent wonders of thought. 

And Christ! 
Compressed to gauge of human brain, 
And, fain. 

Asked no other gauge 
To fill the world's full page, 



AN ANCIENT VERSION 25 

To break the entangling tissue, 

To wage to successful issue 

The great endeavor 

That should sever 

The bonds of evil forever and forever; 

Till, on that fateful day 

Of baleful warning, 

Though Time's true morning, 

He could say, 

"It is finished," 

Naught to be added, 

Naught diminished, 

Now and forever. 

For alway and alway. 

And this touching our spiritual nature. 
So deep, awful, and tender, 
Both God and man's wonder, 
That abysm of much 
But dimly known, 
Whatever our search, 
Though by flashes shown 
From God's eternal throne — 
The life of man. 
That I am of being 
Beyond the sight, 
Beyond the seeing, 
Deeper than light — 



26 NATURE AND HUMAN NATURE 

The soul of man. 

O wells of thought, 
Of joy and sorrow, 
Keen, biting bitternesses wrought, 
That win no hope, 
To-day, to-morrow, 
Sharp need and greed 
That do not speed, 
And pain. 
To Job's refrain, 
Or sweetest singer's plaint, 
In thought so quaint, 
That "down among our senses 
Sits our soul as mourning saint," 
A prisoner forlorn and faint. 
Doubt and doom 
Shadowing all with gloom ; 
Life dominating inertia, 
But death reprising from life. 

O Christ! earth's glory, and her burning 

shame, 
All grace and mystery in Thy sovereign 

name. 
Thyself the type of a divine decree. 
We take our cross, and, Master, humbly 

follow Thee. 
And yet, and yet, 



AN ANCIENT VERSION 27 

Despite what may, 

Let us not alway say, 

" Spite of this flesh, to-day 

I strove, made head, gained ground upon 

the whole," 
But, as the bird wings and sings, 
Let us cry, " ' All things 
Are ours,' nor soul helps flesh more now 

than flesh helps soul." 
Projecting into time and space 
Creations of brain and heart. 
Substantial, adequate accretions of life 
In external, mute, and hving forms; 
Craft, art, and life itself, 
To be as we 
For bane or blessing. 

And power of winning 
Charms of life, 
Social, 

Of the home, 
High ambitious reach ; 
And through all to shine 
A life divine. 
That, in one. 
May Earth and Heaven combine. 

For by no communications 
Of atomic formations. 



28 NATURE AND HUMAN NATURE 

Molecular relations, 

Or protoplasmic cellations 

Is the problem revolved by man solved, 

How time and man may be 

Without God and eternity. 

Great is man in thought. 
But from naught is naught, 
The Spirit's eternal play 
Through matter reflects its way, 
Atoms by law combine, 
Plant life and life of brute, 
And crystals to most minute; 
Leaves their boughs entwine 
By distances proportionate 
To times of planets, as they roll 
Through their wide circuits 
Round the great axis of the solar pole. 

And, thus, celestial glance 
Anticipates thought's deepest trance. 

Thinking and thought, 
Thinking and thought ! 
Which out of wells has brought. 
Deep as Artesian, 
Mysteries Elysian; 
Shape and girth of worlds. 
Their time and range of whirls 
In paths eccentric; 



AN ANCIENT VERSION 29 



And the new creation 
Wrought out by invention, 
Where powers of God and man 
Smooth hfe's rough way as equal plan, 
From the least toil-saving trick 
To the click 

Through wire-bound meshes 
Threading land and seas. 

These all appealing, 
As lyric harmonies. 
To infinite outreaching, 
Despite all doubting preaching. 
Till all this Ufe intense. 

Nor less intense for sin and sorrow. 

Or the uncertain morrow; 

Tides of mind and heart 

In ceaseless ebb and flow. 

Ineffable aspirations of hope and faith, 

Wave on wave — 

In the exhaustless significance, 

The melodies and harmonies, 

The streams and seas 

Of the human voice; 

The sympathetic mobilities. 

The subtle versatilities 

Of human speech. 

Uttered or written, 



30 NATURE AND HUMAN NATURE 

Joyous or aggrieved — 
Wave on wave 
Undulating, lave 
Farthest shores of time, 
Heights of eternity. 

And shall man, 
Lowliest man. 

Measuring to so grand a plan, 
Not be loyal! 
Not be royal 1 
Such a world! 
And such a man! 

Thus our thought and our saying, 
As our saying were praying; 
For our hearts were one 
As the day and the sun. 
As eye spoke to eye 
As earth spoke to sky, 
And we were sure 
As God will endure, 
This is His world, 
Whatever it hold. 

The Cumberland hills 
Peeped blue, and the trills 
Of streamlets and birds. 
And the lowing of herds. 
Thrilled each sensitive nerve 



AN ANCIENT VERSION 31 

With exquisite verve; 

And we said, 

"The world is divine!" 

Not as a thing read, 

Nor as we opine, 

But, in assurance so deep, 

That, from centuries' sleep, 

Again we would say. 

Without breath of delay, 

"This is God's world!" 

For each petal of the wood, 

As on that day it stood 

In glad surprise, 

Outcries, 

"Thou Poet-God, art great! 

Thou Poet- God art good! 

And glad as good!" 

On whom we wait, 

As, in happiest epithet, 

The white-winged poetess hath said ; 

Till at last we ponder. 

With less doubtful wonder, 

That the heavenly leaven 

Be "in man's heart as in Heaven," 

Till its evil surcease, 

And, as glad earth that day 

'Neath God's smile it lay, 



NATURE AND HUMAN NATURE 

Beating quick refrain, 
In its own native vein, 
To love, joy, and peace. 

Dews are on the clover. 

Larks are in the sky. 

And day by day the blossoms swing 

Their sacred censers high; 

O Love, O Hope, that gayly ramble, 

Heart-twined, ahke by rose and bramble. 

O Love! O Life! How sweet to stay 
In the caressing arms of a world so clever. 
Where so many voices daily say, 
"Live on in love and hope forever"; 
And over ridges, running low. 
Angels are telling the story so. 

Brothers ours. 
Mid these glowing bowers. 
And the gay gleams of childhood's hours, 
In a world so full. 
In a world so fair. 
In this ambient air 
Of fragrance and flowers. 
Of song, sunshine, and showers. 
Lay not to God's charge 
Evil, from marge to marge. 



AN ANCIENT VERSION 33 

The world and man, 
The one representative Man, 
Royal, though sad, 
In the grand world He had made. 
Is there in these the intent, 
Is there the Father's intent 
That evil be imminent ? 
Is it not rather written, 
" God cannot be tempted of evil, 
Neither tempted He one," 
But, "as a father his children's," 
Makes each human sorrow His own. 

Father Divine, our Father, 
Our uplifted hands protesting, 
"Yesterday, to-day, and forever," 
Thou, and Thou only, art good. 

Worshipful silence wins a voice 
In instruments of humblest choice, 
The quivering of countless leaves. 
The rustling of the ripening sheaves. 

Praising Thee, 

Praising Thee. 

Birds and rippling water's flow. 
Sunsets in their ruby glow, 



34 NATURE AND HUMAN NATURE 

Morn and mountain, seas prolong 
Services of holy song, 

Praising Thee, 

Praising Thee. 

World so fair, and worlds so fair, 
Climbing by invisible stair. 
Wide their voiceful motions grow, 
Music of motion as they go. 

Praising Thee, 

Praising Thee. 

Their songs roll on, shall ours be still. 
Nor people every vale and hill ? 
From lowliest home, and highest vane. 
And every lip, breathe the refrain, 

Praising Thee, 

Praising Thee. 



AN ANCIENT VERSION 35 

Poetic Consensus 

Faint and vagrant echoes of an eternal melody. 

L. G. B. 
Touches of common things, 
Till they rise to touch the spheres. 

E. B. Browning. 

The Earth is flushed with Heaven, 
And every common bush afire with God. 

E. B. Browning. 

One bush aglow with God! 

O mark the ardor, flaming side and side, 

And go lowly and worshipful. 

Anon. 

The walls that close the Universe with crystal in 

Are eloquent with voices that proclaim 

The unseen glories of immensity. 

In harmonies for beings of celestial mould. 

And speak to man, in one eternal hymn, 

Unfading beauty, and propitious power. 

Percival. 

His glory by whose might all things are moved 
Pierces the Universe. 

Heaven calls. 
And, round about you wheeHng, courts your gaze 
With everlasting beauties. Dante. 



36 NATURE AND HUMAN NATURE 

I but open my eyes and God is seen God, 

In the star, in the stone, in the flesh, in the soul 

and the clod. 

R. Browning. 

A ray of heavenly light gHding all forms, 
The unambiguous footsteps of our God, 
Who wheels his throne upon the rolling worlds. 
And gives his lustre to an insect's wing. 

COWPER. 

All creation keeps step to the sublime harmonies 
Of spiritual forces. L. G. B. 

O bright-faced sky, O smiling earth, 
O scented and singing and festival springs and 
summers, 

innumerable poetries of delightful nature, 

Ye also are God's tender looks, and words, and 

sacred kisses to us. 

Pater Mundi. 

Nature is God's hand lifting us to His heart. 

L. G. B. 
The June was in me, 
With its multitudes of nightingales, 
All singing in the dark, 
And rosebuds, reddening where the calyx split, 

1 felt so young, so strong, so sure of God. 

E. B. Browning. 



AN ANCIENT VERSION 37 



God's aglow to loving eyes 

In what was mere earth before. 



R. Browning. 



What a piece of work is man! 

How noble in reason ! 

How infinite in faculty I 

In form and moving how express and admirable! 

The beauty of the world! 

In action how like an angel! 

In apprehension how like a God! 

Shakespeare. 

What might I not have made of Thy fair world ? 

Tennyson. 

In the days of Balder the Beautiful, 
When all lands lay in peace, 
The frost-haired Friord sang this song. 
The fierce north winds blew my heart 
Into the far welcoming sunshine, 
And I stood amid strange scenes, 
And the confusions of other tongues, 
The hills were clothed with vines. 
And purple pomegranates blushed upon their bor- 
ders, 
While golden citrus fruits made nectar of the air. 
Dark-haired, sun-kissed maidens stood in groups. 
Poising their water-jars upon their shapely heads. 



38 NATURE AND HUMAN NATURE 

And, kindly, glancing invitation to the stranger, 

His eager lips tasted the sweet draught. 

Men clothed in robes were passing hither and 

thither, 
Stately in their mien, and leisurely in their move- 
ments, 
A group of twelve half circling a leader and teacher. 
But his words were not tuned to a Northman's ear; 
Only the cadences of their melodies. 
The rise and fall of their intonations, 
Their subtile harmony of intoxicating sweetness. 
Penetrating the heart as spiritual essence. 
These drew all toward and near the group, 
Fixing their willing eyes and thoughts; 
Who are these, and who is this presence ? 
Heart rather than brain seeking answer. 
For here is more than the common teacher. 
This voice, these eyes as well as lips speak; 
And, as I Hnger and listen, intent, 
A glance has met mine own, 
And, minghng, reads the inmost pages of the 

heart's deepest lore, 
And I shudder at the revelation 
Reflected in those tender, searching eyes, 
A revelation of self to self; 
For I look as into a glass of the soul ; 
And is this Friord ? 



AN ANCIENT VERSION 39 

This the noble Norseman, 

The friend of the great Hendge, 

Whom all men honored ? 

Shall his eye quail, and heart grow faint? 

And is he so like a fraud, even to himself? 

So ran the troop of exclamatory refusals. 

One pressing another, 

So ran they 'gainst myself that I scarcely stand, 

All things are dim, 

I strike out blindly for support, 

A hand stays me. 

It is the teacher's touch, 

I sway an instant. 

And then, waveringly, return his quiet gaze; 

It is benign and sympathetic. 

But of more than human purity. 

And I shrink back upon myself, 

And know I am a sinful man. 

The sweet south wind blows over my heart, 

And the snows of many winters are melting. 

And softening the hard rock. 

And little trailing vines. 

And tender shoots of green and bloom, 

Are covering its stony depths; 

It was but a word, 

"Thy sins are forgiven thee." 



40 NATURE AND HUMAN NATURE 

The mountains glow in the dawning twihght, 
In their glad freedom, 

The springs of the hills leap from rock to rock, 
And emerald valleys welcome and echo 
Their songs of liberty and joy. 
Order and industry, peace and hope 
Brood in palace and cottage, 
But this heart-glow and freedom. 
This love and content. 
This homeness of the soul, 
Wrought by a word. 
These are more than sunny mountain, 
And leaping spring, 
Green valley and voiceful song, 
Hum of industry, 

And murmurous harmony of home. 
My Lord and my God! 
Even so make me loyal and holy. 
And glad forevermore. 

Anon. 



Love of God 

O Love of God! How can we wake 
A loftier note of love to Thee ? 
Thy love, not for Thine own love's sake, 
But ours, and love's eternity. 

Fain would w^e know, fain would we be 
The glad, glad ecstasy of song 
That bears some longing heart to Thee, 
That lifts a soul above its wrong. 

We rise by Thine eternal fire, 
The fire of love and joy divine, 
O Love of God! Thyself inspire 
Our loves and joys to be as Thine. 

Poor exchange he makes 
Who ounce for pound exchanges 
Virtue for pleasaunce, 
Or even for brain. 
For play of the fancy, 
Or intellect keen ; 
What, or whom thou matest, 
Goodness is greatest. 
4t 



42 NATURE AND HUMAN NATURE 

There are those who demand 
Culture and beauty may stand 
For conscience and duty; 
That, by objects of taste refined. 
The human mind, 
With such dower, 
Could not waste 
Its peace and power 
On joys of sense, 
Fleeting, specious. 
In their nature suspicious. 
And, to their devotee, 
Sure to dispense 
Abject misery. 

But, if this were true. 
Would not Florence renew 
The age of gold. 
Where all might behold 
Only sweet virtue 
As the reward of virtu ? 
But, alas, the he. 
Transparent as the sky 
Of her own charmed air, 
Elixir and rare. 

Flower city of Italy, 
Fair Florence, do I slander thee? 



LOVE OF GOD 43 



In classic Arno laving thy feet, 

Olive and vine 

Thine encircling zone, 

And fragrance a robe as meet; 

A world-day's wonder 

Thy palace grandeur, 

Architecture honors thee. 

Liberty reveres thee. 

Poetry crowns thee. 

No slander from me. 

What forms out of Florence 

As Angelo's in St. Lawrence? 

Campanile of Giotto, 

Thy voices still echo; 

Beatrice and Browning 

Make thine Italy's crowning: 

Savonarola cannot slumber; 

Honored names without number 

Up to Dante's divine portal, 

Which has made thee immortal. 

In their proper place 
Let men trace 
Lines of beauty. 
Matchless grace 
In form and feature 
Of each creature, 



44 NATURE AND HUMAN NATURE 

The aesthetic Hfe 

That gladdens earth; 

Poetry and fiction, 

And lofty diction 

Of buskined tragedy, 

Ecstasy of oratory, 

Charm of canvas, 

Music and costuming, 

Rhythmic melody of motion, 

Chiseled harmony of form. 

Architecture and gardening; 

All the muses nine 

From Melpomene to Thalia 

That soothe and refine. 

In complex surprises 

Of highest emprises 

Let them combine, 

For Art is divine. 

An angel brightness 

With Silver Key, 

Whose "broad light from above," 

Flooding feet as face, 

Grosser thoughts reprove, 

Forms displace. 

And higher impulses move, 

But, wide as we seek. 

Is still too weak 



LOVE OF GOD 45 



Confirmed habit to break, 

Highest impulses move, 

To search the blood, 

The life of the soul, 

That it be made whole; 

Corruption so radical 

Needing remedy radical, 

That, to life's inmost springs new. 

The heart may be new. 

Art seeks to enshrine 
All thought, all nature at its best, 
Nor allays, but rather awakes unrest. 
Thirst for life's rosiest, sunful wine. 

And Philosophy's deep probe 
Scarce touches subtlest essences. 
Or, as a robe, a robe of rents. 
Vainly o'erstretching soul and sense. 

Philosophy and Art divine 
The portal-pillars entwine 
That shelter and shade 
^*' The grand facade 

Of the "House Beautiful" 
Of truth and love, 
But offer no hope to free 
The soul struggling for Hberty. 



46 NATURE AND HUMAN NATURE 

Nor is the will omnipotent to ease 
The anguished conscience, 
And deny the pleas 
Of sense indulgence, 
Arrogance of pride, 
Or envy and jealousy's despair, 
Heart deeper than will. 
Heart its own sin; 
The refluent wave 

Of guilty thought on what has been 
Bearing all we would save 
Back to black living grave 
In the dead sea of our sin. 

Ah, the felicity. 
The eternal benedicity! 
Had we always obeyed. 
Had we always made 
A luminous choice, 
Turned an ear to God's voice, 
Had we always swayed 
To the right and the true. 
Had no root of bitterness grew -•'• 
To torture the mind. 
Envenom the heart — 
O God, what a part 
Have we played in Thy World! 



LOVE OF GOD 47 



O heights of salvation for human feet, 
O depths of perdition from every street, 
O man, with holy hands 
Adjust thy snowy bands. 

For not even great merit, 
But only God's Spirit 
Is the ordaining hand 
Fitting man to stand 
In holy greeting, 
God and man meeting, 
Sweet babes of our breast 
To be laid to their rest, 
Or, in sacred chrism. 
Receive their baptism; 
Setting the seal of the Father and the 

Son, 
And Spirit upon the httle one; 
For the bowed head 
Breaking the bread. 
To the face lifted up 
Giving the cup. 

When the heart is wrung 
By sin's disclosure, 
Or calumny's tongue, 
In holy composure 



48 NATURE AND HUMAN NATURE 

Bearing with all, 

Stooping to their fall, 

Helping and raising, 

Despondency facing, 

With timely admonition 

Bracing decision; 

In divine fidelity 

Making reality 

Of floating conviction. 

That may lead to contrition. 

And stable reaction 

From sin's fatal course 

And eternal remorse: 

Sharing warning and consolation 

In tenderest relation 

With the soul in its flight 

Into glory or night; 

And, at last, at the tomb 
Pouring Hght through its gloom. 
As "Ashes to ashes," 
And "Dust unto dust" 
On the heart do their worst. 

O calling, ennobled 
Of Angels and Son, 
Thy victories bloodless 
None nobler have won. 



LOVE OF GOD 49 



God honoring, 

Man needing, 

Taxing heart and brain, 

None called to thine honor 

From his call may refrain, 

But assured he must be 

That God calls. 

And not his own and human vanity 

Verily at church door 
There is more 

Than to devout man has seemed, 
Than godless man has dreamed, 
Where heart is sweetly drawn 
With heart of heavenly throne. 

Stand wide, O church door. 
Let thy holy lore 
Distill as the dew 
On the many as the few. 
Young man and maiden. 
Make here another aiden. 
Swing low, Holy Bells, 
Of Heavens and of Hells; 
To far and far away, 
Sound out thy voice to-day, 
Ring, ring, 
Till minghng melodies wing 



50 NATURE AND HUMAN NATURE 

O'er vale and hill 

News of God's good will; 

The great salvation 

For every people and nation. 

O'er rosy hedges 

And grassy lanes, 

By roadside edges, 

Dusted of ratthng wains, 

At cottage and palace door 

Ring in the heavenly lore 

To win our choice, 

Till angels listen and rejoice: 

And the air, 

Tremulous of benediction, 

Softens the heart to reflection, 

And responsive move the people 

To winsome voice of steeple; 

At whose beckoning tower, 

With genial smile greeting. 

Neighborly hand-shaking. 

And heartfelt inquiry 

Under shade of wall and tree, 

Rich and poor 

Gather from far and near. 

Threading the churchyard, 
His family bodyguard, 



LOVE OF GOD 51 

The pastor leads the way; 

And stops a word to say, 

To wring a brawny hand, 

Or stoop where children stand 

In happy awe, 

To whom his voice their law, 

Or, to the aged and poor 

Gathered about the door, 

A word imparts 

That thrills their hearts. 

Such congregations, 
In boyhood days, 
In joyful patience 
Crowded our ways; 
Young men in troops. 
And maidens in groups, 
Long hues of travel. 
That, to-day, were marvel, 
Till all assembled, 
A great household resembled, 
That, with heart and voice, 
In uniting prayer and song rejoice; 
And, so made receptive. 
When the word was spoken 
That all owned as God's token 
The truth ever new, 



52 NATURE AND HUMAN NATURE 

Fell as the rain, 

And distilled as the dew. 

O, Sabbath Blessedness! 
With light that but for thee 
*' Ne'er on land or sea could be," 
Time noting a benign change 
"Into something rich and strange," 
Making and celebrating 
Earths and Heavens new, 
May no malign influences 
Weaken thy sway. 
For so only are we true 
To our great traditions, 
Our great convictions, 
And to our great missions; 
Happy they with the first. 
To whom, week by week. 
Ministers a pastor holy as meek. 
And who with Paul might say, 
"As I follow Christ 
Follow me alway." 
Happy people 

Whose God is "Our Father." 
Happy people 
Whose word is His Word. 



LOVE OF GOD 63 



On the still air, 
In dauntless cheer 
The evening chime 
Breaks full and clear; 
"Nearer, my God, to Thee, 
Nearer to Thee," 
O, Yearning Heart, to Thee, 
Sad were the score if none, 
Joyful if one 

Cry thus, O God, to Thee, 
Tearful the alternate notes 
That tear the brazen throats. 

O soul, in quick despair. 
Fill with thy cry the air, 
Thy stony heart relenting, 
Thy will to (jod's consenting; 
The voice of grace is pleading, 
The day of grace receding, 
Grace is not alway. 
But to-day." 

Breaks the tenor, breaks the bass, 
Breaks the treble higher and higher, 
Each clang as from tongue of fire, 
"Lost! Lost from the Father's grace. 



54 NATURE AND HUMAN NATURE 

"Lost! lost in the very face 

Of the loving Father, lost, lost!" 

Oh, the horror, creeping till it interlace 

With the heart's chords, throbbing " lost." 

And the awful voice, rising and falling, 
As on doomed spirits at last it were calling. 
In every breath seems to mingle, 
Till dullest ear is made to tingle. 

And cries of weepings and wailings are 

heard, 
Remorseful anguishes in every word, 
"The joy and glory that might have been 
But for our fateful folly, sin"; 

Until the fane with trembhng shakes. 
And, stroke upon stroke, over all there 

breaks 
"Holy, holy. Lord God, art Thou, 
Before whom highest, as lowest, bow." 

And then, in softest resonance, 
As gentlest pleading human voice, 
"Judgment and mercy are His throne," 
Christ's cross and tears for thee atone. 

Fearful bells, and yet so sweet. 
Even for marriage mornings meet. 



LOVE OF GOD 56 



Note upon note in symphony 
Offering grace to you and me. 

Bells swinging up so high, 
Bells singing so near the sky, 
Bells toned of God, divine, 
Intoning His love, line on line. 

Holy bells, voicing for thee, 
Holy bells, voicing for me 
God's unfailing sympathy 
In notes of eternal Uberty. 

O, voices of the Infinite, 
Using all utterance for expression; 
Whisp'ring in the heart, 
And echoing in the thousand cadences of 

nature ; 
Thunder's peal. 
And earthquake's tread, 
Hoary hills, 

Ghst'ning or stormy sea, 
The cataract's deep plunge, 
Or limitless reaches of billowy main; 

Stone-sown prairies. 
Fire-denuded of green; 
Midnight's measureless arc, 
Silence and infinity of starry space, 



56 NATURE AND HUMAN NATURE 

The Borealis' weird play; 
Snow-ermined earth, 
White faces of the dead, 
Morning's sweet breath, 
Flower-tinted wold, 
Pathless depths of noon, 
And evenings opal glow, 
And love, 
And home, 
And all that stirs to bettering. 

O Love, Thy pleading voice 
Is heard through all this noise 
Of Earth and time, 

And the hushed silences of every cHme; 
Through all our own linked sense 
Of care, and pain, and pence, 
To the child touching my sleeve 
In God's reprieve 
From hardened and daring selfishness 

and sin 
That grip my heart within. 

Till Christ's "Lama Sabachthani" 
Rings through Earth and through sky 
As Love's last argument, 
To the divine intent 
That God be God; 



LOVE OF GOD 57 



And love be love, 

Confirming in allegiance, 

Where'er these deeds rehearse, 

To farthest Universe; 

And, to man, the moral might 

Of the Love Infinite 

In repentance unto obedience, 

Hope from despair, 

Joys that angels share. 

Everywhere is proclaiming 

Love eternal reclaiming, 

The heart's reluctant homage shaming. 

Shout and sing forever and ever 
The glory of the great endeavor, 
And joy of God's eternal favor. 

Christ is king! We are not dreaming. 
Gates of the East and the West are 

beaming. 
Light and Hfe through their portals 

streaming. 

Christ is king! Love reigneth! 
And high court maintaineth, 
His love and reign never waneth. 



58 NATURE AND HUMAN NATURE 

Life and love our king giveth, 
And our love receiveth, 
Not as the world giveth. 

Christ is king! Glory forever 
Breaks on the heart He loveth; 
Mine is the heart He loveth. 

Christ is king! Never and never 

Time nor eternity moveth 

His love; my heart never moveth. 

Then, blessed "all-prayer," 
The heart laid to rest 
On the Great Father's breast, 
Where our sorrows sob out, 
Our joys play about. 
And our exultations we share. 

O utter earth solitude 
Without divine plentitude, 
Where the poor heart may beat 
Out its chill and its heat. 

Sought thus of God, 
As God only can seek, 
Held, and kept still 
To know only one will, 
Till we abhor the stain, 



LOVE OF GOD 



" The damning spot, 

The incarnadining blot 

Affecting sweetest Araby." 

That " snow nor rain, 

Nor deeps of the main 

Can cleanse" — 

Till we welcome the Hght 

Whence it glows so white, 

Mirrored from rippling Galilee, 

Glimmering through mists of Geth- 

semane, 
Darkling to light on Calvary. 

Awake, O seven seas, 
O seven seas and stars. 
The glory of Emanuel, 
Whatever mars or bars. 

The glory of Emanuel, 
The Christ of lowly Earth, 
And lowly touch of earthiness 
Enhancing heavenly birth. 

Ring out ye clouds, and stores 
Of wealth, still buried deep, 
Of Him whose garnished ores 
Sleep 'neath the zones that sleep. 



60 NATURE AND HUMAN NATURE 

He measures all our life, 
The bound'ries of its strife, 
And tunes our earthy ears 
To chimes of starry spheres. 

Exult, O Glory spheres, 
"Time is no more" — the years 
Claim all that God has said or done 
Within the circuit of the sun. 

Hammer and hammer, 
Clamor and clamor, 
Mid flying sparks of Tubal work, 
Heated to redness. 
Heated to whiteness, 
The refining metal, 
Thin as petal, 
At last plastic, 
Drawn out elastic. 
In the coiled spring 
That marks the swing of the hours. 

And imprisoned voices of the spruce 

Waited Amati to unloose. 

By impact multiplex 

Of plane and ax, 

Ere viol and bow 

Thrilled Heaven and Earth below, — 



LOVE OF GOD 61 



Voices of April violets, 

And May-day orchard blooms, in truce 

Of elemental strifes, in tunes 

Of zephyrs loitering on to Junes. 

And resisting man, 
Not merrily, 
But verily and verily 
When God seeketh. 
When He maketh 
As He breaketh ; 
While through all He poureth. 
His Spirit poureth, 
As m)a'rhed wine poureth, 
Into golden chahce. 
Marred, but fit for palace. 
Into man's heart poureth 
His "reproof of sin. 
Of righteousness and judgment," 
For, even the yielding soul, 
Still unfitted for the mould, 
"How the Refiner sitteth. 
Till His own face flitteth 
O'er the silver surface." 

And all so clearly meant 
To drive the soul intent 



62 NATURE AND HUMAN NATURE 

To one conclusion, 

To banish the delusion 

Of self and sin, 

And look to God propitious, 

A loving God to us. 

And eternal life to win; 

A sudden homesick longing 

Piercing self and wrongdoing, 

A breaking through to light, 

A breaking through to life ; 

For this is light supernal. 

And "this the life eternal," 

The guerdon of guerdons won, 

"To know the Father and the Son. 

And to wing the great relation 

To Earth's remotest nation, 

Till, with banners unfurled. 

The wide, wide world 

Shouts, "Redeemed and redeemed. 

For eternity's boundary 
Revolves no quandary 
Greater than this. 
That man share God's bliss. 

Not our friends in glory, 
Freedom of toil and worry. 



LOVE OF GOD 63 



Pain, sickness, and desire 
Of what we can't acquire, 
Our God is more 
Than all His works, 
Past and before. 
Than all His gifts 
From shore to shore. 
Than all His worlds 
Forevermore ; 
These but outward rifts, 
These but makeshifts. 
These but wasting mould, 
Until the sweetness. 
The full completeness. 
The supreme brightness. 
The unfaiHng whiteness 
Of Himself unfold. 

O wonders divine. 
That starry brightness outshine, 
The Father's smile beaming 
As no Hght, streaming 
To fill the round world; 
" God is light," and impearled 
In His essence, we shine. 
As in His nature, divine; 
His "hospitable greatness" 



64 NATURE AND HUMAN NATURE 

Our final rest, 

To which home place we hie 

As bird to nest; 

"None in Heaven but Thee, 

Nor on Earth beside Thee." 

And, so, 
To the soul distraught. 
Is at last brought 
This ethereal thought. 
Of Time greatest, 
Greatest of Eternity, 
The Supreme Good, 
The soul's sole complement is God. 

Not outward glory 
Of golden ghnted story, 
Nor crowns and calms. 
Nor pearls and palms. 
Nor regal city ; 
These the ditty 
That symbol a deeper 
Life, and sweeter, 
A life in God ; 
Not myself and thyself, 
Intense, nor satiate sense. 
Nor peace. 



LOVE OF GOD 65 



Nor Heaven, 

But God our rest, 

Joy and zest, 

Power and contentment blent. 

"As panteth the hart 

So panteth my heart," 

Near to the limit where all wishes blend 

"Heart and flesh," and all nature 

Cry out for Thee, 

O Thou, the Living One, 

" Shew us the Father, 

And it sufficeth us." 

Out of all its weary past, 
Here, then, at last. 
The soul stands, 
Sinking sands 
Hardened to granite 
By pitying fate ; 
And weary feet 
Ceasing their restless beat. 

Thus the thought grows, 
Thus the heart knows, 
And, bravest conclusion to dare. 
To claim I, too, am God's heir. 



What languor of odors, 
What holy heat of ardors, 



66 NATURE AND HUMAN NATURE 

Love and life, 
Love divine 
And life eternal, 
Shaping words supernal. 

It is past. It is past, 
Grace availing at last, 
The passion and strife, 
The harassment of life; 
All is past, all is past. 

It is past. It is past, 
Faults and failures are past; 
The toils and the tears 
Of the long waiting years, 
All is past, all is past. 

It is past. It is past, 
Every shadow that cast 
Its darkness and doom 
'Twixt the heart and its home. 
All is past, all is past. . 

It has come. It has come, 

Men and Angels are one, 

As on mercy's errands they run; 

Wherever we roam 

There is room, largest room. 



LOVE OF GOD 67 



It is light. It is light, 
A new vision to sight, 
New language, new laughter, 
New joys rippHng after; 
God is light, all is light. 

Life is full to the brim, 
And we sit at the rim, 
Quaffing at last 
What forever will last, 
Scarce thus could we dream. 

Glory to Father and Son, 

And Spirit as one. 

With all, thou repHest, 

" Glory to God in the highest," 

Who redemption has won. 



68 NATURE AND HUMAN NATURE 

Poetic Consensus 

There is none that doeth good, 
No, not one. 

David. 

Mankind is corrupt and has no insight; 

Men, as many as there are, 

What knoweth one of them ? 

I sought after help, 

But no one took me by the hand, 

I wept. 

But no one came to my side, 

I cry aloud, but no one hears me. 

Babylonian Tablets. 

Would God, thou couldst hide me from myself. 

Tennyson. 

He traveled here, he traveled there, 
But not the value of a hair 
Was head or heart the better. 

WORDSV^^ORTH. 

A man must recognize the limits of his right 
Before he reaches the limits of his power. 

AUERBACH. 



LOVE OF GOD 69 

When we fall below ourselves, 
We are punished by having to live below ourselves. 

Unknown. 

When once our grace we have forgot 
Nothing goes right, we would, and we would not. 

Shakespeare. 

He climbs the ship's side for release from himself. 
But himself climbs the ship's side with him. 

Horace. 

I looked on my right hand, and beheld, 
But there was no man that would know me; 
Refuge failed me. 
No man cared for my soul. 

David. 

Reasons and reasons, this, to begin, 

'Tis the faith that launched point blank her dart 

At the head of a lie, taught original sin. 

The corruption of man's heart. 

R. Browning. 

But we, indeed, who call ourselves good and fair. 
The evil is upon us while we speak, 
"Deliver us from evil," let us pray. 

E. B. Browning. 



70 NATURE AND HUMAN NATURE 

Hold thou the good, define it well, 
For fear divine philosophy 
Should push beyond her mark, and be 
Procuress to the lords of hell. 

Tennyson. 

No torment, save thy rage, 

Were to thy fury pain proportioned full. 

Dante. 

There are two freedoms, the false, where man is 
free to do what he likes; the true, where man is 
free to do what he ought. 

KiNGSLEY. 

If we admire those who show us our faults, 
there is always a possibility of becoming better. 
Elizabeth T. Morgan. 

Whatever is capable of aspiring must be trou- 
bled, that it may wake and aspire; then troubled 
still, that it may hold fast, be itself, and aspire 
still. 

George McDonald. 

When a man truly repents, the Angels are very 
near him. 

H. L. Hammond. 



LOVE OF GOD 71 



Only through self-abandonment do we obtain 
possession of ourselves. 

L. G. B. 

In to-day already walks to-morrow. 

Coleridge. 

Enoch walked with God. 

Bible. 

Walk before Me, and be thou perfect. 

Ibid. 

Hast thou considered my servant Job? 

Ibid. 

Rest is not quitting this busy career, 
Rest is the fitting of self to its sphere. 

Goethe. 

The opening of the streets of heaven are on 
earth. 

Unknown. 

He did God's will, to him all one 
Or on the earth, or in the Sun. 

Robert Browning. 

Let us make Heaven of Earth then. 

Ibid. 



72 NATURE AND HUMAN NATURE 

Heaven is there where love and faith make 

heaven. 

The Mahabharata. 

To talk with shortening breath 
Of Kfe, and not of death, 
Since, in a life well spent. 
Death's but an incident. 

E. N. POMEROY. 

Thy will be done in Earth as it is in Heaven. 

Jesus. 

Dare thou to give all history the lie, 
So shall the world, confused, awry, 
Grow polar to thee, slowly taught, 
And crystal out a Kosmos round thy thought. 

Ellice Hopkins. 

Are there not, dear Michal, 
Two points in the adventure of the diver, 
One — when a beggar — he prepares to plunge, 
Another — when a prince — he. rises with his pearl ? 

R. Browning. 

The only limit of the gift is its welcome. 
The only condition of reception, to no longer 
prevent it. 

L. G. B. 



LOVE OF GOD 73 

In all eternity, no tone can be so sweet 
As when man's heart with God's in unison doth 
beat. 

Longfellow. 
Trans. Johannes Scheffler^s Cherubic Pilgrim. 

Oh, that I knew where I might find Him, 
That I might go before His throne. 

Job. 

All round about our feet shall shine 
A Hght Uke that the wise men saw, 
If we our loving wills incline 
To that sweet life which is the law. 

Lowell. 

After Him my heart sighs. 

To Him my thoughts turn as cows to their pasture. 

Vedas. 

O we love Thee, we love Thee, and yet we love 

Thee: 
And altogether we need Thee, and cry out after 

Thee. 

L. G. B. 

It is not Kfe upon Thy gifts to live. 

But to grow fixed withMeeper roots in Thee. 

Jones Very. 



74 NATURE AND HUMAN NATURE 

From God who is our home. 

Wordsworth. 

When we cease to interpose obstacles, are we not 
already almost conscious of our union with God, 
and so of our completeness of Hfe? L. G. B. 

Grant, at last, love's utmost measure, 

Giving, give the whole. 
Keep back nothing of the treasure 

Of Thy priceless soul. 

Indian Song of Songs. 

Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father 
which is in Heaven is perfect. Bible. 

If life be not already consciously immortal, and 
time already merged into eternity, the teaching of 
life and time is not yet complete. L. G. B. 

He had thought to find God in the beauty of 
His works, he learned to seek all things in God. 

Lowell. 

Nothing is great but God, 
Ev'n Heaven's boundless hall 
Is, for a God-full soul, 
Much, O how much too small. 

Longfellow. 
Trans. J. Schefflefs Cherubic Pilgrim. 



LOVE OF GOD 75 



The end of life is to be like God, and the soul 
following Him will be like Him. 

Socrates. 

The purpose of their lives 

Was hfted up, by something over life, 

To power and greatness. 

Bayard Taylor. 

A hearty hoHness must crown the work, 
As a gold cross the minster-dome. 

Bailey. 

Higher purity is greater strength. 

Lowell. 

My strength is as the strength of ten, 
Because my heart is pure. 

Tennyson. 

With all the heart, and with that tongue which 

speaks 
The same in all, a holocaust I made 
To God, befitting the new grace vouchsafed. 

Dante. 

We know the sweep of the circle by the measure- 
ment of its arc. 

L. G. B. 



76 NATURE AND HUMAN NATURE 

The soul, in its highest sense, is a vast capacity 

for God. 

Drummond. 

To me to live is Christ. 

Paul. 

I do not wonder at what men suffer, but I won- 
der often at what they lose. 

RUSKIN. 

For eternal life, the ideal state, is not something 
future and distant. Dante knew it when he 
talked of "quella que imparadisa la mea menta." 

Paradise is here, visible and tangible by mortal 
eyes and hands whenever self is lost in loving, 
whenever the narrow limits of personality are 
beaten down by the power of the Divine Spirit. 

Mrs. Humphry Ward. 

Mere everlastingness might be no boon. The 

quality of the everlasting life makes the heaven. 

Eternal life is to correspond with the "true God 

and Jesus Christ." 

Drummond. 

Be what thou seemest. Live thy creed, 
Hold up to earth the torch divine. 
Be what thou prayest to be made, 
Let the Great Master's steps be thine. 

Unknovi^n. 



LOVE OF GOD 77 



He has shown us the way by which that country, 
far beyond the stars, may become the habitual 
dweUing-place and fortress of our nature, instead 
of being the object of its vague aspiration in 
moments of indolence. 

Lowell. 

True bliss, if man may reach it, is composed 
Of hearts in union, mutually disclosed. 

COWPER. 

I conceived myself to be now, not as mine own 
person, but as a member incorporate into that 
truth whereof I was persuaded. 

Milton. 

It is only in fellowship with the Eternal Creative 
Spirit the created spirit can meet with the satis- 
faction of its desires. 

W. T. Gess. 



<'The Whole World Kin" 

Moral growth has ever followed a loftier ideal. 
But with Christianity alone is both the highest 
ideal, and the power to bring that ideal out from 
the realm of misty thought, and, as a conscious- 
ness, and, essentially, an experience, place it in 
the tangible and normal course of history. 

Anon. 

In the opulent delay of the day's leisure 
We made seizure 
Of a thought, a fact or two, 
That, as to ourselves, 
So also to you. 
Might justify the strokes 
Of a pen that makes books; 
A thought, a fact or two 
Of what man sought 
And of what God wrought 
Apt summer harmony. 
In assured certainty 
Of the thoughtful love 
Which nothing can move, 
The bloom and song of the soul's June, 
78 



" THE WHOLE WORLD KIN " 79 

Love triumphant, 

Immutable, 

The heart nestling to its home. 

For, with God's earth and the play 
Of its sunshine that day. 
We were one with the scene 
That day between 
Lowly earth and high heaven, 
Earth's heart pressed to the heart of God. 
Nature's fulfilment of the promises of 

Christ. 
Precious promises of Christ, 
Wrapped in fragrant husk, 
Shall we miss for their musk 
The blessings twice told, 
That fold in fold they hold, 
The shining grain within 
That awaits our faith to win ? 
That divine treasure Hst 
The world so long had missed; 
For the lowly are blessed. 
And blessed the meek, 
And they who with heart-longings after 

righteousness seek, 
The merciful, mourning, and pure, 
Who here for a little endure 
For His name's sake, 



80 NATURE AND HUMAN NATURE 

Till the day break, 
What treasure-trove 
Here and above! 
And, lest men fail to repeat, 
Twitt'ring sparrows preach, 
And words that God's thoughtful ten- 
derness teach 
Spring anew in Hlies and wheat. 

Holy breath of Divine Presence! 
With holier essence 
Of loving and life 
Inspire our vain life, 
That, ennobled in purity. 
The now and futurity 
Mingle as one; 

"The judgment passed over," 
The heart as forever 
At home and at rest; 
For, "In Christ, 
All God's promises 
Are Amen and Yes." 

Deny we then the soul, 
That it be made whole? 
And afiSrm that sin must needs 
Permeate heart and deeds 
In dominion over us 
Who are under God's grace? 



''THE WHOLE WORLD KIN" 81 

And struggle and battle, 

And the rattle 

Of war, through time, 

If not into another clime? 

Nor on Earth ever 

Fulfilled that Scripture, 

"In Earth as in Heaven"? 

"Casting down imaginations, 

And every high thing 

That exalteth itself 

'Gainst the knowledge of God," 

And against the God-will, 

" And making captive 

Every thought 

To the obedience of Christ, 

Saved unto the uttermost." 

O soul of mine, 
Bound, shackled 
As auction slave, 
Bound under law 
Without rent or flaw, 
" Sold under sin," — 
And under what bidders! 
How can you win 
The way of the saved ? 
The triumphant song 
In peans prolong ? 



82 NATURE AND HUMAN NATURE 

Blood has flowed, 
Love has won, 
Out of death 
Life has sprung, 
"By God's favor 
Tasting death 
In behalf of all." 
Brief rehearsal, 
But infinite reversal ; 
And but faint the bitter types, — 
Bloody sweat 
Thorns and stripes, 
Nails and spear, — 
Of the moment's consciousness 
Of a soul without God forever. 

And, so, henceforth, 
" Nor death, nor life, 
Space nor time. 
Nor spiritual powers. 
Nor other creations 
Separate us 

From God's love in Christ," 
"In whom all His Father shines," 
" Brightness of His glory. 
And expression of His person," 
Our "Bread of Life," 
Through whom our life; 



" THE WHOLE WORLD KIN " 83 

As in brief profession 

Of Paul's confession, 

"To us one God, 

The Father; 

Of whom are all things, 

And we unto Him; 

And Christ our Lord, 

Through whom are all things. 

And we through Him." 

And thus we trust. 
As we humanly trust 
Father and mother, 
Sister and brother. 

Sweet maiden charm of betrothed love, 
Daughter of our heart and home, 
Son in our household born. 
Friend we long have known. 
Great leader of an army. 
Patriot through period stormy, 
In a confidence they will not shame; 
To these we trust 
Purse, life, and name; 
We trust because we believe 
They neither will, nor can deceive; 
The only solid ground of rest 
Is a heart so true that our hearts may 
trust, 



84 NATURE AND HUMAN NATURE 

Asphodels and heartsease spring 

From the soil of loving trust, 

And of Thee, O Christ, 

As we beHeve and know Thee, 

We trust and rest. 

And, 'neath azure and amethyst 

Our souls are blest. 

A heart conviction, 

A passionate intuition, 

A consciousness and spontaneity, 

A living faith in the living Christ, 

That having Christ is to live; 

And, as chosen friends, 

"Ye are my friends," 

And, with refined touch 

Of equal fellowship, 

''I will feast with them, 

And they with me." 

Friendship and fellowship 
Of infinite price. 
And infinite completeness. 
The heart's exhilaration and rest. 

Brothers ours. 
Mid earth's sunshine and showers. 
Longing hopes and mem'ries sweet, 
Let us still believe 
That " He, who caused 



" THE WHOLE WORLD KIN " 85 

Light to shine out of darkness," 

Can gladden our hearts, 

In giving the hght 

" Of the knowledge of His glory 

In the face of Christ," 

And that "all are ours," 

Paul and Epictetus, 

Apollos and Aurelius, 

"Life and death. 

Eternity and time." 

O weary world. 
Though garlanded of flowers. 
Pressing in procession 
With snatching eyes, 
Unsatisfied, 
Insatiate, 

Is there for thee in these 
No winning charm, 
No alluring voice ? 

If, mid these thoughts sublime, 
We lose our rhyme, 
Too dreamily rocking 
The cradle of words 
We rock to sleep; 
Art ever to thought 
Is subordinate, 
Or, highest art 



86 NATURE AND HUMAN NATURE 

Is divinest thought; 
And soul harmonies 
Are what we reach, 
Whether we sing or preach. 

For Hfe were but sedge. 
On the very edge 
Of steriHty, 
Without trine unity 
Of holy enthusiasms, 
Enthusiasm of purity. 
Enthusiasm of piety, 
And "enthusiasm of humanity." 
Not the mere rudiment 
Of virtue to be, 
But of that liberty, 
In which the soul, at last free. 
In joyous service celebrates 
What it forever creates; 
For, whatever we have achieved. 
We have not yet achieved 
Till we have loved and beheved. 

And, thus, the life eternal. 
The heavenly kingdom, 
God's power and presence. 
In their essential essence, 
"As in Heaven, in Earth," 
And in human history 



''THE WHOLE WORLD KIN" 87 

The glow of the divine mystery; 
As in Holy Book — 
Where, in the divine John's view 
From lone-island outlook, 
Lay Earth and Heaven new — 
And as poet-heart of the ages, 
And the Vedas of its sages, 
Had sought the clew; 
Its Buddha and Balder 
Names under which smoulder, 
In Arctic and Tropic tropes, 
Embers — or ashes of its hopes. 

And the charming fable of the Round 
Table, 
Holy Truth with Ruth, 
At last to its ideal 
Capturing the human will; 
Woman loving as Elaine, 
Without cross of pain; 
As Guinevere beautiful, 
Enid dutiful, 
Una incomparable, 
And the guileful Nimue, 
Never again to be 
Knights grand as Arthur, 
Not one of "devil father," 
All the twelve that sit 



88 NATURE AND HUMAN NATURE 

Washed of Christ to their feet; 

Pelleas and Valiaint, 

Eric and Irwein, 

Perceval and Geraint, 

And Red Cross Knight; 

Sir Sagamore and Galahad, 

Envisioned Sir Launfal, 

Magician Merlin, 

And once scornful Edyrn; 

Some virtue distinguishing. 

Some eminence mingling, 

With courtesy gracious. 

Faith unsuspicious. 

And many a sprite, 

With main and might. 

Aiding their purposes, 

Or staying their reverses; 

All the glory fine 

Of courageous preeminence, 

Of aroma of loveliness, 

Won from bad and worse, 

Brightening needle and lance. 

That, line by Hne, 

Spencer and Tennyson flush 

Through their transparent verse. 

In Christian deed and hope 
A grand nobihty; 



"THE WHOLE WORLD KIN" 89 

A divine chivalry; 

To cope 

With great adventure, 

Under indenture 

Of Christ's knighthood, 

Sealed in blood ; 

Gracious St. Vincent, 

Howard and Eglantine. 

Martyn and Judson, 

Maffat and Livingstone, 

Gordon and Emin, 

Stanley and Hanington 

Nightingale and Barton, 

And the thousand heroisms. 

Chronicled and unchronicled, 

Of Christian ministries 

In camp and hospital, 

Poverty and plague. 

Munificent benevolences, 

And pattering pence, 

Moral heroisms, 

Accomplished altruisms, 

Surpassing realism 

Of pretentious altruism. 

Or of stocks and dollars, 

In which men draw as collars, 

Bowing the knee to Mammon, 



90 NATURE AND HUMAN NATURE 

As Syrian once to Rimmon, 

In clink and clank of motion, 

As though matter were man's portion. 

But gold and machinery 
Are, and have right to be. 
The polished steel 
That, with living arms. 
Drives spindle and wheel; 
And wide-winged fleets 
That welcomed on every shore, 
As worlds circling the sun. 
Of all names and nations make one; 

Thought's benignant off 'ring; 
To a new human offspring. 
Car supplanting wain, 
Heliograph and telephone 
Post and watch-tower lone, 
As though grosser creations were meant 
To type and share. 
With subtler work and rare, 
The soul's final enswathment. 

And, so, honor to knighthood of labor, 
Plow supplanting saber, 
The shop's merry noise 
The camp's carouse, 
Capital, brain, and brawn 
In will and interest one; 



"THE WHOLE WORLD KIN" 91 

Intelligent concession 
Superseding oppression, 
As powers of grace, 
Rich and poor, 
Ruling and ruled possess. 

For no salvation can obtain 
Where ingrate hearts remain; 
True glory is its own reward, 
And "with myrtle wreathes the sword"; 
Turn down the bloody page, 
At last let human rage 
Abate its part. 
And Peace with kindher art 
Fill the new age. 

Let, therefore, 
Never more. 
Grim despair 
Darken the air 
Of this Christian world; 
Made sacred forever, 
Made Christian forever. 
By holy human hopes, 
By blood, love, and tears, 
By divine love and prayers. 
By holy achievement. 
Divine and human. 
That beats as its pulse, 



92 NATURE AND HUMAN NATURE 

Or, its heart, throbs forever. 

But who can portray 
A Hfe divine ? 
A life in which the play 
Of heart and mind 
Is in the plane of God's thought 'i 
That plane in which He wrought 
" When He laid the Earth's foundations, 
And stretched out His line thereon," 
When ''the Morning Stars rejoicing sang," 
And with shouts of God's sons the heavenly 

welkin rang; 
While, o'er sea, plain, and wood, 
Under His eye and benediction all was good ? 

Or, when He planted eastward in Eden 
That ever-blooming pleasaunce garden, 
Where Hope and Genius hand in hand 
Still saunter as in enchanted land, 
And gates of bone outswinging 
Set thousand joy-bells ringing, 
"Oak and linden. 
Pine and fir, 
Stately palm. 
With Psalm they stir, 
Low-spreading beech 
And juniper"; 
Whence breathe congenial airs, 



" THE WHOLE WORLD KIN " 93 

And fly to chase our cares 

Song-bearing birds, 

Whose rich wood-notes 

Are almost words 

StruggKng their joyous throats ; 

Whence float 

Ten thousand odors sweet, 

As though to cheat 

Decay and desolation of their meet; 

Thence running vine, 

And generous vegetation. 

Whose charm and use combine 

To hide 

What we call dead ; 

A death that feeds 

With subtler Hfe and rare 

The sweet and fair: 

O Paradise, thy gates do not half close 

While at our feet still springs the rose. 

Voluptuous energies of nature woke 

A thousand echoes ere the dismal stroke 

Anticipating man's frail will, 

Fulfilling God's good will. 

Diffusing sense of more than sense, 

A life than nature's more intense, 

An outraged, but eternal grace 

On nature's half-averted face: 



94 NATURE .AND HUMAN NATURE 

Thou art, O Nature, 

But the filmy mist, 

Through which unfailing breaks 

Diviner amethyst. 

And "home, sweet home!" 
Some Eden charm 
Still gilds the home. 
Friendship and love 
Not all entombed, 

"The ineffable dehghts of sweet humanity," 
That hold us to a truer sanity. 
Self-sacrifice and daring rare, 
That lowliest with the lordliest share 
For home and state, 
EnnobHng lord as lowliest wight, 
Eden's brief life cannot relate; 
Ten thousand sparks of joy ignite 
From multitudinous ties and stages 
Of childhood and maturer ages; 
Heroic bonds of brotherhood, 
Even to archers of the wood, 
Friendship's warm pulse, 
And patriot's flame. 
That Eden neither had nor knew, 
But "the rich spoils of time convey," 
And daily human history strew. 
That it were weak to longer envy 



" THE WHOLE WORLD KIN " 95 

Adam and Eve their outward bliss; 

At utmost charm, in this we miss 

The minor notes that children ring, 

The youthful harp that David trilled, 

And Christian song triumphant; 

Nor there Isaiah, 

Nor Mantuan there, 

Nor the resounding Demosthenes, 

Hugo nor Goethe's immortal verse, 

Browning nor Milton entranced the sphere, 

Bryant nor Longfellow clear, 

Lowell nor Whittier, 

Nor breathing canvas. 

Nor the mute symmetry of form, 

Nor opera nor oratory thrilled. 

Nor science and invention charmed. 

But sin, oh sin! thine awful curse 
Gloams the sweet thought, " what might have 
been!" 

For all these shew but faintly 
The life that God calls saintly. 
Its charm of moral beauty. 
And grace of daily duty 
In full free play 
Of Love's imperial thought; 
Life's relations adjusted 
So that none are distrusted, 



96 NATURE AND HUMAN NATURE 

The weak growing strong, 
And the frail free from wrong; 
The home, the state 
Springs whence percolate 
Streams sweet with the peace 
Of God's completest release. 
"Nor Jerusalem the golden," 
Too pure to be holden 
Of human sight, 
Nor God's presence in the city 
Too strong a light for pity 
Of lowly human plight. 

But pity our eyes should miss 
This heavenly metropolis, 
To our waiting world descending, 
Within whose walls are blending 
The nations of the saved. 
The honor of peoples hoary, 
"And of kings of the earth their glory," 
For thus in bold figure, 
Though this but meager 
Shadow, in showing 
God's thoughts glowing 
In human society 
Through practical piety; 
His life in the heart, 
His love as a part 



" THE WHOLE WORLD KIN " 97 

In trade's attritions, 

Discontent's ebullitions, 

Labor's toils, 

And brutal men's broils, 

The mind's calm serenities, 

Home's sweet amenities, 

Glad neighbor love and kindness 

Out to farthest heathen bhndness 

Of men moving only in shadow; 

In action and reaction. 

In every compaction 

Of relation, wide and narrow. 

To very pith and marrow. 

So church of God in new dawning, ' 
"Looking forth as the morning. 
Fair as the Moon, 
Clear as the Sun, 
And serried grandly 
As bannered army. " 

Only that our eyes are holden, 
So brightly gleam, 
Its pearls and stream, 
"Jerusalem the golden," 
Stooping lowly to our need 
In heart and deed; 
Its twelve gates open wide 
To ceaseless human tide 



98 NATURE AND HUMAN NATURE 

Claiming divine inheritance; 

The murmurous melody 

A far-sounding sea, 

As in procession 

Of nameless splendor, 

Toward their possession 

They joyfully pour. 

And shouting boys and girls. 

In childhood frolic toss their curls; 

"Wolf and lamb, 

Leopard and kid, 

Calf and young lion together; 

None hurt nor destroy," 

"For the Earth is full 

Of the knowledge of the Lord 

As waters fill the seas." 

Here "Table Round" 
Whence chivalrous renown 
Eternal years astound ; 
And Holy Grail, 
As in communion meet, 
No thirsting lip will fail. 

For by the quaint legend 
Where hope's fruitions blend, 
Assuring true souls union, 
Legend of the cup of the first communion, 
Transmitted from Joseph of Aramathea, 



" THE WHOLE WORLD KIN " 99 

None but of heart and hand clear 
Could touch the holy rim, 
Vanishing from eye, as heart, dim, 
But, for true-hearted men, 
The Beaker, now, as then. 
O'er wood and wold. 
Binds in one fold. 
From sea to sea. 
Pledges one sympathy; 
For mists are passing away, 
And, at last, night is day, 
And victory and victory. 

O hearts, bounding with life's warm currents, 
Touched of the ideal and heroic. 
And all generous impulsions of youth. 
Love, hope, and conquering vitality. 
Raise high the banner of the Crucified, 
As once ye Martyr Spirits of the ages, 
Whose long trailing light brightens the cen- 
turies. 
Not as flashing meteor, 
Or blazing messenger of superstitious omen, 
Nor yet cold, distant gleam 
Of Sirius or Procyon, 
But, as our intimates. 
The heroic brotherhood. 
The fervor of whose witness 

I , ' '^ 

U. '- ■ V. 



100 NATURE AND HUMAN NATURE 

Won the faith 

That glories and burns in human charities, 
And gives regal earnest of the world's con- 
quest 
To righteousness, truth, and love. 
By whose alchemy 
Your once flaming robes 
Are eternal iridescence; 
Fit chorus, ye, of victorious song 
Of Grail — touched lips, in words, 
Nor as of joyous song birds. 
Nor freighted as when 
Merlin sat among men. 
But deeper, sweeter, 
And, for last triumph, meeter, 
Whose far echoes wander 
Out to Heaven's last wonder. 

Holy hush lingers, 
As trilling fingers 
Waken the lay 
Of exultant melody; 
Sheen soft as Heaven 
Plays o'er the sacred seven, 
Aldebaran brightens, 
Orion heightens, 
Sun and stars listen, 
Milky ways glisten. 



''THE WHOLE WORLD KIN" 101 

Harp of the morning, 
Harp of the night, 
Wake in the dawning, 
Wake at midnight; 
Day breaks at last. 

Free fling thy numbers, 
Glory of wonders, 
Love's last home-bringing 
Shouting and singing. 

Over all fields hes the sunshine, 
Within all hearts breaks the sunshine, 
Light, beauteous light. 
White, as God's thought white, 
God's light yours and mine. 

Far as Eternal sway. 
Far and far eternal day, 
Truth and light, light and life. 
In incessant play of genial strife. 
Hand in hand forever stray. 

Bow of love, without cloud 
Breaking in thunder loud. 
One effulgence of Hght, 
One glory of might, 
Day reigns, and all is light. 



102 NATURE AND HUMAN NATURE 

Mingling echoes prolong 
Earth's chorus of song; 
And as in homage we kneel, 
Yet louder and louder peal, 
As loftiest heavens reply 
To Earth's anthem high, — 

Great Archangel strong, 
I have no voice for thy Song, 
Far and far away, 
Proclaiming eternal day, 
Its notes prolong. 

But my soul is richly fed 
With crumbs of living bread. 
And, in ancient lay, I cry, 
" Glory to God on high," 
Who Earth to Heaven has wed. 

God's peace broods over all; 

The crescent Moon is up. 

And day decHnes, 

O what of joy and peace 

'Tween its confines, 

O what of fear 

And sobbing tear, 

O Earth, how great thy needl 

O Earth, how faint our deed. 



"THE WHOLE WORLD KIN" 103 

The shadows lengthen, 
As the day declines; 
Our shadows lengthen, 
And our days decline; 
Their last suns running 
Low and lower. 
And our feet treading 
Slow and slower. 

The day is clear, 
But a shght chill 
Its amber glory seems to fill; 
Earth is not alway, 
Time is fleet, 
And rest awaits the weary feet. 

Is it well with thee, brother? 
Is it well ? 

Then, at morning or midnight. 
Ring the bell; 
And let the watchmen cry 
"All is well, 
All is well." 



104 NATURE AND HUMAN NATURE 



Poetic Consensus 

We must take things as they really are, 
Not as we think them. 

ViRCHOW. 

In unison with God's thought 
The near and future blend in one, 
And whatsoe'er is willed, is done. 

Whittier. 

The celestial melodies are always the same. 
Whatever the key in which they are sung. 

L. G. B. 

Behold the days come, saith the Lord, 
That the plowman shall overtake the reaper. 
And the treader of grapes him that soweth seed. 
And the mountains shall drop sweet v/ine, 
And all the hills shall melt. 

Amos. 

Here shall humanity be blessed. 

And righteousness appear, 
The love for Heaven we manifest 

Would build a Heaven here. 

George Vaughan 



" THE WHOLE WORLD KIN " 105 

O, Gospel Legend, richest, sweetest, 

Balm of divine healing, 

A censer swinging 'mid the changing centuries, 

Fed by the breath of prayer, 

The prophetic energy. 

The life of men. 

While the pale panoply of the melting sky 

Awaits a better prime. 

For the noiseless doors of the divine purposes 

Long since swung wide, 

And perfumes of heavenly air 

Mingle with the gray mists of Earth; 

While trooping angels, friends of men. 

Hither and thither make procession. 



Anon 



Fathomless the soundings 
Of the long-sweUing deeps 
Of the soul of song 
In the words of St. John, 
Though in hyperbole said, 
That the deeds of the Lord 
Could not be wTitten; 
The unfaihng flow 
Of that love and that glow 
Coined into words, 
Coined into deeds 
For human needs; 



106 NATURE AND HUMAN NATURE 

But that the things written are written 

That we may beUeve 

That Jesus is the Christ; 

And, that, beHeving, 

We have Hfe through His name. 

And, that we know we have life. 

And that the things written are written 

That our darkness be Hght, 

Our weakness might, 

Joy and fellowship one 

With the Father and with the Son, 

Life cleansed at the fountain, 

Till, as stream of the mountain 

From springs gushing clear. 

Its course may appear; 

As Christ's promise given 

To a heart that had striven 

In fierce passion heats, 

CooHng its beats; 

" Who drinks of the water I bring, 

Shall not again thirst, 

But, as at the first. 

Be a Uving heart-spring," 

A living spontaneity 

Unto eternity and eternity; 

" And from this as a source 

Flow rivers in their course." Anon. 



"THE WHOLE WORLD KIN" 107 

Does the night pass? Is the morning far? 
Before the dayhght shines a star, 

Have you seen the star in the sky? 
Has the waning moon dropped wan and low ? 
Has the pale East caught a golden glow? 

O, Earth, is the sunrise nigh? 

Before the daylight sings a bird, 
Has any listening mortal heard 

In the dawning, still and dim. 
That joyful song to coming light ? 
Those notes that in their upward flight 

Are like a rapturous hymn. 

Mrs. Amelia Barr. 

The port well worth the cruise is near, 
And every wave is charmed. 

Emerson. 

A sphere of stars about my soul. 
In all her motion, one with law. 

Tennyson. 

At last the heart, 

Living poem of the universe. 

Beating in rhythm 

Of eternity and time. 

L.G.B. 



108 NATURE AND HUMAN NATURE 

I report as a man may of God's work, 
All's love, yet all's law. 

Robert Browninc. 

Through so many streams with joy 
My soul is filled, that gladness wells from it. 

Dante. 

The only limit of the gift is its welcome. 

L. G. B. 

True joy is hope put out of fear. 

Lord Brooke. 

And now good morrow to our waking souls, 
Which watch not one another out of fear; 

For love all love of other sights controls, 
And makes one little room an everywhere. 

Dr. Donne. 

Love took up the glass of time, and turned it in his 

glowing hands: 
Every moment, lightly shaken, ran itself in golden 

sands. 

Tennyson. 

In His will is our peace. 

Dante. 

Worship is life. 

Kingsley. 



"THE WHOLE WORLD KIN" 109 

There is but one true, real, and right hfe for 
rational beings, only one life worth living, in this 
or in any other world, past, present, or to conne, 
and that is the Eternal hfe, which was before all 
worlds, and will be when these have passed away, 
and that is a good life, a life of good acts and 
words, and thoughts and feelings, the Hfe of 
Christ and of God. 

Ibid. 

Beyond the recognition and love of the divine is 
our union with it. Xv. G. B. 

O Thou Love of God I Thou My.stery! Thou 

Light of Life! 
Thou Dawn beyond the dream ! 

Indian Song of Songs. 

I learned to know Christianity was a philosophy 
teaching higher truths than I had ever known in 
all our systems; to know that it gives not only 
precepts, but a perfect example, and not only 
example, but also assures divine grace, by which 
we can follow that example. 

PUNDITA RaMABAI. 

Christ is the supreme authority in the realm of 
religious thought. 

Chunder Sen. 



no NATURE AND HUMAN NATURE 

Christ is the resolution of all philosophy. 

Tolstoi. 

The acknowledgment of God in Christ solves 

for thee 
All questions in the earth and out of it. 

Robert Browning. 

These wide, deep yearnings, seeking with a cry 
Their meat from God, in Thee are satisfied. 

Dora Green well. 

The night is far spent, 
The day is at hand. 

Paul. 

Happier made 
At each new ministering. 

Dante. 

Never was heart in such devotion bound, 
And with complacency so absolute. 
As mine at these words, and, so entire 
The love for God, it eclipsed Beatrice in oblivion. 

Ibid. 

But now was turning my desire and will, 
Even as a wheel that equally is moved. 

Ibid. 



"THE WHOLE WORLD KIN" HI 

The will rolled onward, like a wheel 
In every motion, by the Love impelled 
That moves the sun in heav'n and all the stars. 

Ibid. 

Out of the shadows of night 
The world rolls into hght. 
It is daybreak everywhere. 

Longfellow. 

His rehgion was the absolute religion of the 
intelhgent Universe, a gleam in thick night, but 
to become full day. 

Renan. 



PRINTED BY R. R. DONNELLEY 
AND SONS COMPANY, AT THE 
LAKESIDE PRESS, CHICAGO, ILL. 



r;ov 11 1903 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



018 603 415 6 




